Alden Abbott

Senior Research Fellow at Mercatus Center, George Mason University

Speaker

Alden F. Abbott is Senior Research Fellow in the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. A widely published scholar and lecturer, he oversees the Center’s research on antitrust and competition policy. He also is the regular antitrust columnist for Forbes online and a Leader of the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Section. Prior to joining Mercatus, he served as General Counsel of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Mr. Abbott is co-author (with Shanker Singham) of Trade, Competition, and Domestic Regulatory Policy (Routledge 2023), a unique study of the global interactions among antitrust, regulation, trade, and intellectual property laws. His current research focuses on artificial intelligence, innovation, and government-sponsored anticompetitive market distortions that undermine the global economy. He also is a member of the Growth Commission, a special research body that issues reports on national economic policies that have slowed economic growth. In September 2025 he was selected as a United States Non-Governmental Adviser (NGA) to the International Competition Network (ICN).